Question

How many trophic levels do most food webs have? Why? Relate your answer to the appropriate law of thermodynamics

Answer 1

Answer:

Most food webs have between 4 and 5 trophic levels

Explanation:

Energy flow: From the whole quantity of energy that reaches the earth's surface, autotroph organisms or producers only absorb 0.1 or 1%.

From the input of solar energy begins a unidirectional energy flow. It passes through all the organisms in the ecosystem, from autotrophs to heterotrophs, until it is eventually dissipated in the environment.  

There is an energy transfer from each trophic level to the next, and each level only uses 10% of this energy. This assessment is called "The 10% rule". As a general rule, only about 10% of the energy stored as biomass at one trophic level, per unit time, ends up as biomass at the next trophic level, in the same unit of time. The rest of the energy is used by the organisms in their own metabolism or dissipated as heat to the environment.

The progressive reduction of energy determines the number of trophic levels, which, in general, turns to be between 4 and 5.